by Erin Hogan
The Berlin Lady Mountaineers’ match up against Hawthorne Valley on Tuesday, February 2, was a special one. It was the Ladies’ Senior Night, and it proved to be an exciting one. With all the seniors, Erin Berschwinger, Deanna Nash, Victorian Muller and Kayla Hawk, taking the court the game started. Berlin won the tip-off but still got off to a slow start. Hawthorne scored six points before the Mountaineers broke onto the scoreboard. Erin Berschwinger scored the first points of the game for Berlin. After her shot, Berlin started pressing Hawthorne. The girls struggled to take the lead on their senior night even with seniors Victoria Muller and Kayla Hawk scoring. The score at the end of the first quarter was Berlin trailing 6-12. Berlin came out with a lot of intensity in the second quarter. Kayla Hawk scored on a layup, then got fouled back to back to score the quarter’s first six points. This tied the score at 12-12 with 4:15 left to go in the second quarter. The score would stay this way for most of the quarter. Deanna Nash and Tegan Shumway made their presence known on the court by playing intensely tough defense and stealing any bad passes from their opponents. Their hard work paid off, and Shumway scored a jump shot. Shortly after Nash sunk a shot for 2 points. With just 1:43 left to go the score was 16 to 12, and it seemed that that would be the score going into half time. But Deanna Nash decided to leave Hawthorne with a reminder of how the rest of this game would go and threw up a buzzer-beater just before the half ended, changing the score to 18 Berlin, 12 Hawthorne.
The third quarter was pretty quiet with both teams unable to score until Erin Berschwinger took aggressive action. She went up for a layup and managed to not only score but to draw a foul. She sunk her foul shot as the icing on the cake, turning her lay up into a three-point play. Victoria Muller put up a layup which was followed by another shot from Berschwinger. There were 25 seconds left in the third quarter, and Hawthorne scored for the first time since the first quarter. It was followed by a shot from Hawk to finish out the third. The score heading into the fourth quarter was 27 Berlin, 18 Hawthorne.
The fourth quarter was a quiet one with the first big play being Hawk getting fouled in the act of shooting. She made both foul shots. Shortly after, Nash put up a three and drained it. Then with 3:30 left in the quarter, Muller put up a lay-up for two points. Hawthorne, in response, put up a jumper for 2. Finally, Hawk scored a lay up as the last word of the game leaving the score Berlin 37, Hawthorne 20. Muller ended the game with 6 points, Hawk with 12, Berschwinger with 7 and Nash with 7 appropriately leading the scoring for the Lady Mountaineers on Senior Night.
